businessinfomag.uk magazine without paying a ransom, with the proportion able to do so doubling from 14% in 2023 to 30% in 2024. Alongside enhanced data recovery capabilities is growing recognition that paying a ransom is no guarantee that data will be recovered. In 2024, 32% of EMEA organisations that paid ransoms were able to recover their data, compared to 54% in 2023. Tim Pfaelzer, Senior Vice President and General Manager EMEA at Veeam, warns that these trends don’t mean the threat from ransomware is over. He said: “Attackers will always adapt. We are seeing some forgo ransomware encryption entirely, instead stealing data to extort money directly or sell it on black markets. For some, financial gain isn’t even the main driver; disruption is. Payments may drop, but it doesn’t mean attacks will. And our data has clearly shown that significant gaps remain in data resilience, leaving organisations vulnerable.” For example, last year only 37% of EMEA organisations had arrangements for alternative infrastructure, meaning that in the event of a site-wide attack 63% of organisations would be unable to recover until the main site was declared clean, which could take weeks. www.veeam.com … Developers optimistic about UK datacentre ambitions despite power concerns Are the UK’s AI data centre investment plans completely unrealistic? Quite possibly, warns specialist grid consultancy Roadnight Taylor. Its Powering Great Britain’s Data Centre Ambitions report highlights a disconnect between the projections of data centre developers and on-the-ground 3. Invest in early detection: implement penetration testing and monitoring to spot breaches sooner. 4. Formalise clear communication plans: provide clarity to employees, customers and partners in the event of disruption or a breach. 5. Ensure continuity, even if systems go down: use backups and manual workarounds as a Plan B. They may feel oldfashioned, but they could save your business in a crisis. www.workflo-solutions.co.uk … Paying a ransom is so 2023 The number of ransomware victims in EMEA choosing to pay a ransom to get their data back is in decline due to improvements in data resilience and changing attitudes towards negotiating with attackers. A comparison of Veeam’s retrospective 2024 and 2025 Ransomware Trends Reports shows that organisations are increasingly recovering data Don’t catch a cold this autumn October marks the start of the winter flu season, which West Lothian-based MSP Workflo Solutions warns can leave organisations under-staffed and more vulnerable to ransomware and phishing attacks. Managing Director Michael Field said: “Every year we see an increase in attacks from October onwards, so this month we’re urging everyone to take proactive steps to stay safe online.” For individuals, these include creating strong passwords, enabling multi-factor authentication, keeping software updated and double-checking before downloading attachments or clicking links within emails. For businesses, Field recommends five steps: 1. Audit your data: understand what you hold and how it flows through your systems. 2. Evaluate supplier risks: ask if your partners’ systems are as secure as your own. BULLETIN 04 Voice clones now indistinguishable from the real thing Anyone who thinks they can distinguish an AI-generated voice from a human one needs to think again. A recent study by Queen Mary University of London (Voice clones sound realistic but not (yet) hyperrealistic, published in PLOS One) found that voice cloning technology has advanced to such an extent that the average listener is unable to recognise when they are listening to a deepfake voice. Participants in the study found AI‑generated voices to be more dominant than human voices and, in some cases, more trustworthy as well, with serious implications for ethics, copyright and security and the risk of misinformation, fraud and impersonation. Dr Nadine Lavan, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, who co-led the study, said: “We’ve all spoken to Alexa or Siri or had our calls taken by automated customer service systems. Those things don’t quite sound like real human voices, but it was only a matter of time until AI technology began to produce naturalistic, humansounding speech. Our study shows that this time has come.” She points out that it is not just the quality of clones that is concerning but the ease and speed with which her team was able to create clones of real voices using commercially available software. “The process required minimal expertise, only a few minutes of voice recordings, and almost no money,” she said. “It just shows how accessible and sophisticated AI voice technology has become.” The study compared real voices with two types of voice generated using AI voice synthesis tools – those ‘cloned’ from voice recordings of real humans and intended to mimic them and those generated from a large voice model with no specific human counterpart. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0332692 Michael Field
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